Before They Were Stars: Ray Liotta on “Casablanca: The TV Series”

It seems to be a popular trend these days to adapt famous films into television series, but one of the most ill-advised attempts at this took place in 1983 when a TV adaptation of Casablanca hit the airwaves. It functioned as a prequel to the film and starred David Soul as Rick (yes, the guy from Starsky & Hutch was asked to fill Humphrey Bogart’s shoes), but was cancelled after only five episodes aired. However, the series is notable for providing Ray Liotta with one of his earliest roles as Sacha the bartender. The only footage I can find of the Casablanca TV series on Youtube is this video essay put together by The Seventh Art. You can see Liotta’s appearance during the show’s opening titles at the 11:23 mark of this clip, along with brief glimpses of him at 3:53 and 13:28.